Posts Tagged With: volunteer

It’s official, I’m to be the relief ranch hand

Danielle and Tony are moving down the hill, so Leslie and Eddie are taking over the ranch manager duties here at Equine Partners, Inc.

cowboy artI’m going to be the Sunday “relief” ranch hand, doing a morning shift and an evening shift. The morning shift takes about 3 hours and the evening one about 2 hours. The relief day does not involve the full routine of pre-mixing buckets of supplements and whatnot, as the ranch manager does that on Saturday for the Sunday and Monday volunteers. Nor is there any assisting with training or lessons, facility maintenance, holding horses for the farrier or vet, or other expert work.

The Sunday and Monday volunteers only have to feed (oat pellets, pre-measured supplements, and hay), muck, water, and move horses. Oh, and let the donkeys out in the morning and put them back in the evenings. And feed, water, and muck the pigs.

For me, it’s a chance to handle 12 – 15 horses twice a day and get some practice reading them and learn to understand more horsenalities.

Continue reading

Categories: Ranch Hand | Tags: , , , | 1 Comment

Horses teach humans, and horses humble humans.

I went out to Hacienda Becerra today and volunteered to play with a 10 year old Percheron mare named Savannah Havana. (The Hacienda is a rescue/volunteer organization mostly for off the track standardbreds (trotr.org) but they have all breeds, ages, and sizes out there; really nice folks too!) She has in recent months developed a behavior of bolting when she feels the line on her halter. I thought if I gave her 22 feet instead of 12, it might help. And that she needs more Friendly Game with the halter and line, and some Hide Your Hiney as bolting is an extreme way of turning her hindquarters at the human.

I made mistakes, learned a lot, and left things on a good note — for myself and for the horses. Continue reading

Categories: Learning Experience, Liberty, On-Line | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

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